Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-10-05
THE OLD SHERIFF.

| was put at the head of vigilance COM
mittee People said he would know best
| how to act and there would never be
| any danger Of his Judgment being
swept away by passion. No higher
trust has ever been reposed in him than the
men Of his neighborhood reposed when they
went away to the army, saying: 9Look after
my people, Joel" He was one of the men
who showed their heroism by not going to the
army, though he had no such cruel ordeal to
go through with as Davenport had He was
an acknowledged authority, so far as any
authority was acknowledged, and he and
Beelzebub were to be seen at any hour Of the
day, or the night either, if there was a
whisper of danger or disorder on any of the
plantations within his reach.
1t was while he was regulator that Joel
Harvey made what he calls his marrow
escape" 1t was an escape from matrimony.
He has encountered almost every sort OF
peril at one and another time Of his life, but
he still declares that the Widow Mason came
nearer vanquishing him completely than any
thing else OF earthly mould ever has.
Although the office OF sheriff was virtually
extinct for the time being he still occupied
the room in the ground floor Of the court
house on whose door in gold letters on panel
of black tin were the imposing words,
"Sherifrs Office" The court room proper
was Immediately over his head, but he sell
dom penetrated there row. 1t had fallen
into the hands of the Ladies' Sewing society,
which had taken out q contract, seemingly,
to clothe the entire Confederate army with
jackets and trousers and shirts made out of
all sorts Of material from brocatelle window
curtains down to bed ticking, and with a
violent departure from all the established
canons of tailoring. Box after box Of these
hastily and periodically constructed gar
ments Sheriff Harvey had been called upon
to ship for them. Shipping a thing in those
days was fraught with difficulties and uncer-
tainties that border on the incomprehensible
In these days So whenever the sheriff was
requested to come up stairs to where all the
matrons and maidenS Of the town were sew
ing, and shipping, and folding, and packing,
it was a foregone conclusion that there was
another box for him to ship to the victims Of
all this unskilled labor
The Widow Mason was ND there on one of
these occasions, not sewing, nor cutting, nor
folding, nor packing, simply crying quietly
in one corner and pouring her woes out into
the ears Of the only woman who seemed TO
have time to listen to her. This was Mrs
Judge Baker, but she, too, turned deaf ear
on the little woman when Sheriff Harvey'S
head doomed above the chattering crowd and
hurried forward to give him minute instruc-
tons about the shipping of tho box to the
Redfeld Rifles in Richmond. Mrs. Baker was
the president of the society.
"Poor child" she said, nodding her head
backwards toward the Widow Mason, she's
in q quicker. So afraid the cotton burners
will find her cotton that's hidden out in the
woods. She says she made Dempsy, her
driver, mad this morning, refused to let him
have coffee three times a day, believe, and
he helped hide the cotton, and she is sure he
will tell. He threatened to show it to then,
the next time they visit the neighborhood."
Joel Harvey made no comment, but that
night slliff shot across the river at q point
considered quite safe from molestation from
the gunboat, and lying in the bottom OF Is
was man with his hands tied behind him
and a bandage over his eyes. He was united
and turned loose in the woods on the opposite
side and advised to go to Vicksburg without
delay. The next day Joel Harvey drove out
to the Widow Mason's sitting on the front Of
wagon. There were two men with him.
They had come to move the Widow Mason's
cotton to another spot in the dense forests
that surround her place, SO that in case
Dempsy concluded to return instead of going
to Vicksburg, as he had been advised, his in
formation to the cotton burners would be
worthless.
The " idow Mason would gladly have re-
warded the handsome sheriff for his zeal in
her behalf by marrying him. Widows have
way Of making their intentions palpable
without detracting from their destinations.
Old Harvey is Of the opinion today that if
the marine brigade had not raided the town
just about that time and carried him off a
prisoner, Mrs. Mason would have been hrs
Harvey and he would have been nobody. He
considers that the brigade was an instrument
in the hands of Providence for that occasion
only. They really did net want him, but to
quote old Harvey himself once more, "they
had gotten so used to picking up vauables
wherever they landed, that, having exhausted
the other movables, they took him, meaning
| to return and get the court house next time"
| But having taken him, and really not know
| ing what TO do with him, they forwarded him
from hand to hand until he found himself at
Alton prison. There were lot OF fellows
there that he knew, men who had been cap
tured as scouts on the battlefield, men who
worn. They were hungry and gaunt, and
woe worn and heart sick. Harvey says he
hung his head before them for very shame,
because he was neither hungry, nor gaunt,
nor heart sick, nor woe worn. But he did
the only thing he could do for them, sold his
gold watch and aided materially to their
comfort
He never suffered much from that mys-
| ions r11al Iln1 sic
Harvey has always been an optimist. When
the war first broke out, though he was not On
original secessionists, he held himself in readi-
ness to do whatever should be assigned him
to do he was quite sure it was all for the
best. TIE conflics was irrepressible, and he
rather rejoiced TO think that it would be over
and done with during the years when he
Could lend most practical service He was q
fatalist in his way, and the fatalist has an
inward source of serenity that stands nim in
good stead in disjointing times. When Vicks-
burg fell. of course Harvey was not glad of :;
but it was really merely a question of time
when it must surrender, and just think of
of the numberless precious lives saved by the
cessation Of hostilities. When Aoruen conn.,
planned in his presence land there wero so few
available men TO whom they could complain
in those days that the regulator had to hear a
good many walls Of the numberieSs hard
ships the war had entailed, be aroused them
to very ambitious pitch by his absoluts re-
joicing over the fact that now the resources
Of the south must be developed, and this wal
was going to prove in the long end grea.
blessing TO them all 1t made not the least
difference that the majority Of his cheerful
prophecies came to naught. They had a good
effect for the time, and Mrs Judge Baker